It’s fitting that MTV is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. Back in the early days of that network, when there was only a single MTV channel, bands relied on the airing of music videos to sell records. Today, MTV has multiple channels around the globe, and most of the programming involves reality shows, rather than music videos. This cultural shift has allowed the videogame industry to become the number one outlet for consumers to experience original music from established bands and to hear brand new artists for the first time. No company has done more to spearhead this shift in music than Electronic Arts. And Steve Schnur, the worldwide executive of music and marketing for EA, is the man behind the evolution of videogame music that has taken place over the past five years.
It’s fitting that Schnur began his career in the music industry as part of the original programming team at MTV, during the time that the music channel was literally changing the world of music. After a long career in the music industry that included executive positions with the Warner Music Group, EMI and BMG, Schnur joined the largest independent videogame publisher in the world in 2001. From the outset, Schnur created EA Trax, a program that shifted the focus of licensed music in videogames away from old songs that had been played on the radio to exclusive music and new artists that had yet to be discovered.
Shnur said that this evolution in videogame music occurred because the traditional outlets for music, MTV and radio, changed the way they conducted business. MTV found it could make more money creating original programming than playing music video, thanks to the sales of DVDs and digital distribution of TV content. Radio became a consolidation of a few companies dictating what people could hear.
“Consumers could be dictated the Top 25 according to radio stations, but they couldn’t find the level of music that we had access to as a videogame company,” said Schnur. “Ironically, when the discovery of music failed people, most of those people were playing videogames. I decided to take videogames, the most important real estate of the new century, and bring music to where the kids were.”
According to Schnur, the popularity of music file sharing wasn’t because it was free in the early days, but because consumers were excited about discovering and trading new music with their friends. That mindset fit in perfectly with EA Trax, which decided to give gamers a real reliable place to discover new music, rather than regurgitating the same songs they’d been hearing over the past decade.
“Gamers know they discovered Franz Ferdinand in Madden two years ago and when they pick up Madden NFL 07, they know they’re going to discover other new bands,” said Schnur.
Despite the success of the EA Trax initiative and the growing size of EA, Schnur stands his ground when it comes to new music. He said that when a gamer buys a new Sims game, Madden game or Need for Speed game, they’re going to discover something new musically that’s going to change their life.
Each EA franchise has to have its own musical personality, much like a radio station. Schnur said that EA can’t play to everyone by having 25 songs from every genre in NBA Live 07. It needs to be a place to discover new music and also play homage to the property that’s being discovered with it. It has to make sense.
“Sports games are different than lifestyle games,” said Schnur. “With NBA Live we took a stance five years ago that hip hop would rule. This was a time when people were still a bit uncomfortable with hip hop in the mainstream. Hip hop is now one of the most mainstream musical genres there is. With Madden, whether it’s rock or hip hop, the harder, the better. You’re about to get on the field and pound some flesh. It really needs to pump you up.”
Schnur added that with lifestyle games like Burnout or Need for Speed™ need to service a purpose emotionally and fill the environment and make it realistic. He said the thing hardest thing is to not follow the rules of the marketplace, but to lead. For example, hip hop is the most pop musical genre there is today. Schnur knows that most people who are musically interested want to know what’s next, so he can’t just put hip hop in the new Burnout because it’s popular.
“We have to be true to what the game is to what we feel people want to discover,” explained Schnur. “We think rock is getting more aggressive. There’s an underground rock movement right now that we think is astonishingly good. We feel we have to chase that rather than chase the popular mainstream. If you don’t hear a song from Burnout on the radio for two years, that’s okay. At least you know where you heard it first.”
While that new song might not be on the radio, it will be available for digital download on a variety of music services. Schnur said that EA works with the owners of the songs to make sure they’re readily available, so gamers can hear it on the game, discover it and then buy it. To make things easier, most of the songs from a game franchise can be searched on music services by using EA Sports or the name of the game, like Madden.
With the digital distribution capabilities of PLAYSTATION®3 and the PLAYSTATION® Network, Schnur envisions a day not too far off where gamers can hear the new Madden soundtrack and then purchase it online, downloading it directly to their PLAYSTATION®3 or PSP® system.
“Next gen is going to provide us with the greatest highway, musically speaking, ever,” said Schnur. “Maybe you’ll get correspondence that the band that you’ve been playing a lot for your touchdown song in Madden is going to be in town and boom you can buy tickets. Whatever the case may be, it’s extremely exciting that you can continue to customize through community. There are millions and millions of songs out there. If you can feel that the people who program Madden songs and other EA songs are reliable, now you can create a 24/7 relationship with you to continue to recommend songs.”
Schnur has watched as the pendulum has completely shifted in the music business. Five years ago, he had to seek out every single song in Madden. Schnur had to explain to record labels why it would be good for them to license their song to be in a Madden game. Now, Schnur has to choose a list of 30 to 35 songs from 5,000.
“Every one of those 5,000 songs is fairly aggressively pitched to us,” said Schnur. “The record companies know that the videogame space is MTV-esque in its importance. They realize that to get on the Madden list is a feat unto itself. They know if they get on the list it will ensure that millions and millions of people will hear the band and maybe become fans of that artist.”
While the music industry has done a 180 in its acceptance of videogames as a major form of entertainment, the philosophy at EA remains the same. Schnur licenses music into Madden because there’s a reason for every song in that game.
“It’s our choice,” said Schnur. “People can’t get that space. It’s an A&R decision. We base each decision on the gamers who play Madden.”
Those choices seem to be working, as the exclusive NFL videogame franchise has sold over 53 million copies to date, including 2 million units in its first week of release this August.
One of the reasons EA has succeeded in the music space is because the company works with all types of music labels and with bands from around the globe. For more international franchises, like FIFA 07 and NHL® 07, EA seeks out new music from around the globe. By opening the world of music to games, Schnur and his team are able to stay ahead of the curve. That’s something gamers can appreciate, whether they prefer Madden NFL 07, NASCAR® 07 or Need for Speed™: Carbon.